After observing a few classes I've learned a bunch about best practices during distance learning! Thx so much to the Ts who allowed me to learn from them and their Ss.Here's a thread with some of my takeaways: #distancelearning #fcpson #fcpssbts

You're gonna forget to click the record button.Add a reminder to your first presentation slide. Also, you're gonna forget to stop the recording, so add a reminder to your final presentation slide.

It might be helpful for Ts to number the slides if they are using a presentation, so everyone has a quick way to reference where they are supposed to be. Might also be helpful to include directions in the speaker notes so Ss can review if they get distracted by something at home

Giving Ss info upfront about what they need to participate in class really helps to set everyone up for success. Do they need a pencil/paper? Where can they find links to today's resources? Great info on an opening presentation slide with a warmup.

Organizing assignments according to the week # seems to be effective. @JBurns121 uses a new topic for each #distancelearning week in GoogleClassroom to organize his assignments. Mrs. Nardone names her @edpuzzle activities according to the week #.

Teaching abt #digcit is best done in context! Establish expectations & implement consequences as necessary. Praise appropriate S participation. Model the behavior you want to see from Ss, like this reminder from Ms. Nardone abt sending emails w/specific info @FCPSLBSS #fcpsdigcit

Relationships are EVERYTHING, especially right now. I observed Ts who did not try to avoid the little tangents that sometimes feel like they derail a pre-COVID lesson. I could see that those tangents were helping Ss to (re)connect w/ their class in a personal way.

It is super important to spend some time in the beginning of each class reconnecting with each other. @ejchild did this with a few fun games - would you rather, which one doesn't belong.

There were a few ?s that came up from Ss during the classes I observed which were too big to be addressed in the moment. I wonder if it might be good to collect these questions somewhere? Perhaps a @padlet parking lot?

Each T had their camera on & some personal elements in the background-pics from kids, a view of the kitchen, etc. This felt so special to me-how often does a S get to see their Ts kitchen?! Also, I heard Ts kids/dogs in the background, reminding me we're all in this together.

There are lots of ways to communicate when using videoconferencing platforms - chat, video, microphone, even comments in the Google Doc/Slides for the day's lesson. When Ss aren't sure how they should communicate their thinking, they tend to stay silent.

It can be tricky to get a sense of whether Ss are "getting it" when you can't see them. Tools like @PearDeck can be used to facilitate getting formative data along the way so the T can ensure Ss are understanding the content of the lesson.

If breaking into groups, it helps to set Ss up with a doc with questions/sentence stems/a graphic organizer to guide their conversation. @FoxChem did this with Google Docs linked from a Slides presentation. Ss clicked on the icon that corresponded with their group name.